1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention generally relates to an annealing process and more particularly, to a continuous annealing furnace for annealing a metallic strip and the like therein.
2. Description of the Related Art:
Conventionally, in the continuous annealing furnace for a metallic strip which is provided with a direct firing type non-oxidizing furnace, there has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-42804 an arrangement in which exhaust gases generated in the non-oxidizing furnace are led into a convection type preheating zone through a radiation type preheating zone for effectively utilizing heat of the exhaust gases as a preheating source.
In the continuous annealing furnace for the metallic strip as described above, however, since all of the non-oxidizing furnace, the radiation type preheating zone and the convection type preheating zone are horizontally arranged, a total length of the furnace has been long and consequently, there have been a variety of drawbacks in transportation of the metallic strip.